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GBAx.com review of the NeoGeo Pocket Color with 6 games 22/09/04 Manufacturer: SNK Back in the 1990's the big game companies just didn't seem to want to understand that Nintendo had the handheld scene all to its self thanks to its clever entry into the market with its inexpensive Gameboy series (long battery life and 4 color grey scale screen), Sega and Atari tried and failed to join in - mainly due to releasing way ahead of their time units with what must have been the most shocking battery life ever (6 batteries for about 2 hours). Nintendo had a monopoly for a good 10 years. Then SNK showed up. Nintendo had just had some great success with its new Gameboy Color and were already working on the gameboy advance when SNK thought they had seen a gap in the market - they had designed a system which seemed to blow the GBC away - color TFT screen, good graphics hardware, stereo sound and amazing 40 hour+ battery life - add in a back catalogue of some of the most famous games ever and how could it go wrong? Well they forgot nintendo has a never ending chest of cash to destroy and crush any competitor who should dare to challenge them - even if the challenger is the master of 2d beat em ups. So it didn't work out for SNK, it was a KO flawless victory on nintendos part, but what was the NeoGeo color really like? Well very very good would be the first thing to come to mind if this 6 game pack is anything to go by! It seems this pack was only ever designed to be sold in the USA, this is what the packaging seems to suggest - a last ditch attempt to unload the units and get some money back for poor SNK. It obviously didn't work as here we are 4 years later with boxes of them. But their loss is our retrogamers gain for sure, the bundled 6 games are surely some of the consoles best: Samurai Showdown 2 Fatal Fury First Contact King of Fighters R2 Neo Turf Masters Pacman Metal Slug All colour and all quality conversions - excellent value for money. The unit itself also comes with 2 AA batteries and an internal battery so it can remember your settings and the time and date - a very unique feature. There are 3 face buttons and a digital control pad, its all very robust and solid - great for the fighting games! The TFT screen is not backlit but is very reflective, probably on a par with the original GP32 screen, very smooth and colourful. The sound is also very loud, which makes the 40 hour battery life claims all the more amazing, this must be a very well designed system. The GFX hardware is clearly ahead of the GBC as it has dual playfields and large sprite support which it puts to good use in all the games resulting in fast and fluid action never seen on the Gameboy series until the GBA was released. Its clear SNK had their popular big sprite fighting games in mind when the hardware was designed. You won't be dissapointed. This is definitely a handheld that neogeo fans and retrogamers will absolutely love, and it has a great catalogue of games just waiting to be discovered - many like Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket being unique to the system. Its a shame it didn't work out for SNK, but then Sony is about to square upto Nintendo with the PSP, so Nintendos monopoly could be coming to an end at last... You can get the NeoGeo Color with 6 games here. -Craig - www.gbax.com